An Amherstburg councillor has vowed to find out why the town hasn’t collected thousands of dollars in development fees on Boblo Island.

Diane Pouget attended a recent Ontario Muncipal Board hearing on an appeal by Boblo Island homeowner Michael Prue, who is fighting what he considers piecemeal development allowed by the town. Pouget said she was surprised by what she heard during testimony.

Coun. Diane Pouget takes part in a town hall meeting in Amherstburg on January 20, 2013. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

“I was shocked when they asked (town planner) Rebecca (Belanger) why she wasn’t collecting the fee and Rebecca said she was reviewing the policy,” Pouget said. “So I took that to mean she could collect but she wasn’t … that’s why I’m asking for clarification.”

Pouget was referring to a five per cent development charge on new homes. She said the lost fees could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“My fear is that we’ve lost a significant amount of money. They refer to the homes on Boblo as being million-dollar homes, so if it’s a million-dollar home we lost five per cent on then it’s about $50,000 per home,” Pouget said. “It just came as a surprise to me when we’re in such horrible debt.”

Pouget said she wasn’t blaming Belanger nor does she think Amico should be held responsible for fees on anything built before the company assumed ownership of the island, but she wants to see the documentation exempting the developer from paying the fees.

Belanger did not return a message left by The Star for comment.

Prue, an MPP for the Beaches-East York riding in Toronto who owns a summer home on the island, was appealing a decision by the town’s committee of adjustment to allow two lots to be severed.

Prue said after the hearing concluded that his issue wasn’t with the two lots, it was what he believes is a lack of planning and the fact that the island’s developer Amico wasn’t required by the town to file a plan of subdivision.

“The municipality continues to run around the law in my view,” Prue said. “They don’t do everything the way the law has been structured and set out. I believe this needs to be a plan of subdivision, which is taken out of the hands of Amherstburg and given to the County of Essex.

“A plan of subdivision provides for far greater certainty to the people who live on Boblo Island.”

Belanger said the town depends on the development and site plan control agreements when determining what type of structure is being built. The two lots in question were said to be for single homes.

OMB hearing officer J.P Atcheson asked her how the town regulates what’s being built.

Belanger said “it’s understood.”

Atcheson pressed the point, saying,”So there’s no condition that imposes that as a requirement is there?”

Belanger responded no.

Cindy Prince, vice-president of development for Amico, testified that the company “inherited lots created by consent with approval of the municipality” on the north end of the island, which is the partially developed end, when Amico took ownership in 2005.

Prince said a 2006 master development agreement, similar to a subdivision agreement, outlines development on the north end. She said the south end of the island, which has yet to be developed, will fall under a plan of subdivision.

Prince said Amico has more than $20 million invested in the island but loses over $1 million a year just by owning it, pays approximately $1 million in taxes and loses $500,000 a year on the operation of the ferry service.

She said there are a number of existing lots of record and that plans do get “massaged,” especially to comply with environmental requirements set out by the Ministry of Natural Resource, which monitors endangered species in the area.

Since 2005, only 10 new homes have been built.

Atcheson allowed the parties to file written arguments rather than oral summations at Prue’s request. Following that, Atcheson will make his decision.

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